


Annie Cresta’s Backstory

by longkissgnite



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: And nothing else to say just a general backstory to serve her some justice, I headcanon her first name is Annalisa, also she’s autistic because I said
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25080475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longkissgnite/pseuds/longkissgnite
Summary: A pretty simple headcanoned backstory for Annie!! Just some basics for her life predating the books!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8
Collections: THG Character Backstories





	Annie Cresta’s Backstory

⠀⠀⠀⠀Annalisa Cresta had always been odd, she was in her own world from a young age, her sister claimed she had never lived in /their/ world. How could she have? When she picked the flowers with the lost look in her eye, placed them where they shouldn’t be with such a sense of certainty that clearly Annie thought they were meant to go there. She’d mutter and repeat things to herself, making lists of tasks, or sometimes naming the fish her sister had said she caught that day. No one thought this was /bad/ per se, she was just clearly so different, clearly much happier in her Annie world.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀Her sister was raised a “career”, only sixteen months and fourteen days older than her, Natalia looked at least two years older (“that’s hardly more than sixteen months,” “but it’s still too much, don’t /lie/,”). Strong, tall, trained to fight with people like the pretty Odair boy. Annie had no interest in it, she hardly even watched the games, usually found reading in a tight nook instead of focusing on the tv in the living room. But her sister had all this talk, about how she would be a victor one day, and Annie was proud of it, she was proud her sister had certainties.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀Her father owned a fishing boat all of their own, managed a crew and he was a captain, she’d like to be a captain herself perhaps, although it sounded like an awful lot of work. But she got to go on his fishing trips, help mend nets that the reckless fishermen had torn, make new ones throughout the day to replace the old when they had worn through. Sometimes, on slow days she knitted, making simple socks and giving them to whoever asked first. This was a perfect life for Annie, a wonderful balance between the real world and the one everyone claimed she lived in.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀She didn’t understand why everyone said she lived in her own world. She felt quite grounded, quite aware of her surroundings. But then there were times like when she was thirteen, she had been wandering around her father’s boat and fell in the water. No one taught her how to swim, not really, so the poor thing nearly drowned. She would’ve, if not for the pretty Odair boy watching her from the dock. He jumped in and /rescued/ her. And better yet, after that he taught her how to really swim, so in case she ever fell in again she wouldn’t let the panic get to her, so she could /survive/.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀She was a simple girl, she was sure. A fisherman’s daughter, like every other girl, plain but pretty (Natalie insisted she was, and she agreed), she was useful but never were they in dire need of a small girl to tie knots, although she didn’t take up much room which made her ideal for trips with small boats and large crews. She was a happy girl, happy with this life and her things and her people. Happy being a little too reckless but always very grounded.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀So when her name was called at the reaping, everything changed. She wasn’t scared, not at first. Someone else would volunteer. If /only/ her sister wasn’t just a hair too old to, her sister would volunteer and come home a victor. But that didn’t happen, she slowly and tentatively walked to the stage, she glanced over her shoulder and caught her parents’ faces, looking upset, Natalia looking blank. She knew then, before they even asked for volunteers, that there wouldn’t be any. That she, a small simple girl, would be expected to handle the arena.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀At least there was her friend, the pretty Odair boy. They had gotten closer, not much but closer, since he saved her life. And he promised her, after she said her goodbyes and boarded the train, that he would keep her alive again. She didn’t expect to live past the first day, girls like her just /didn’t/; but he promised her she would, and there was just something about how he always had a faint smirk even when sincere that made her believe him.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀So she survived, at what cost she still wasn’t sure. At the cost of her world. The place everyone claimed to keep her occupied in her head was no longer her own, it was now horrible things the Capitol forced her to indeevar. Kept awake at night by moments where she felt like she was /back/ in the games, kept distant from her loved ones from feeling like getting too close would surely result in someone’s death. It was a dreadful way to live, but the pretty Odair boy was there for her, as much as he was allowed to be, and he /helped/. He could reach her when she was in the Capitol’s world, just like he could in the arena, she was sure he was the only one (or at least the only one who really tried).  
⠀⠀⠀⠀The Capitol claimed her insanity, which was frustrating because it wasn’t true. She was just scared, hurt, by /them/. But Finnick told her time and time again the Capitol wasn’t fair, they would never be fair. This didn’t click, not until she found out what they did to him, and then it did and it broke her heart.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀She wasn’t insane, she wasn’t always screaming mad like she had when they played the highlights after she won, like when they tried to make her come back to the Capitol for the end of her tour and she had to go home a day early due to the fits she was having. That wasn’t her, that was what the Capitol made her to be, which wasn’t fair but none of this life was. And Finnick told her it was better to play it crazy, it was safer. She didn’t have to play it, mostly she just /did/ scream and cry and thrash whenever the Capitol needed her. She couldn’t help it, and he came to understand that, he came to help.  
⠀⠀⠀⠀Once again, the pretty Odair boy helped her survive, made it bearable, sometimes even wonderful. And although life was frustrating, she could live in it and be /happy/ with what she had, even if it was part time living in her head, in the things the Capitol forced to be there. She could get by, she could resume her net making and knot tying, things could be a new normal even with the Capitol in her head.


End file.
